Saturday, August 1, 2015

By
popular demand of audiences, two excellent productions that graced local stages
earlier this year will re-open this month for extended runs.Each tells a GLBT-related story and
relates an important story of our not-too-distant history.

Photo by David Wilson

Breaking the Code: The Alan
Turing Story (Hugh
Whitemore)reopens at Theatre Rhinoceros August 5-29, 2015, once again at the Eureka Theatre in San
Francisco.Returning with many of
its key roles played by the same outstanding cast as in March, including John
Fisher in the title role, Breaking the
Code is a show not to
be missed.Here is an excerpt from
my earlier review:

“Alan Turning emerges as a human being and not just as an
historical figure.We are never
far away from his mathematical, scientific mind, given Jon Wai-keung Lowe’s
effective and versatile set whose walls and doors are blackboards covered in
formulas and complicated sketches.But in this telling of his life, Whitemore emphasizes not so of this shy,
sensitive, stubborn, and sometimes silly Alan.More telling, he exposes in truthful, believable, and moving
ways the gay life and struggles of this historic hero.”

Karen
Ripley returns to the Berkeley Marsh August 15 – October 3, 2015, to reprise
her hilarious and gripping Oh No
There’s Men on the Land.Taking us from the late ‘60s up to
moments the AIDS crisis hits in the early ‘80s, Ms. Ripley explodes in fun fury
on the stage as she recounts her life as a young lesbian in the East Bay.As I said in my review,

“Ripley’s stories are full of incredible characters right
out of the best of yellowed, much-read paperbacks.…Among others
she brings in both caricature and love to the stage, we meet a wild,
leather-wearing wooer; her half dozen co-owners of a greasy diner (all lesbians
except for one dorky straight guy); and a sweet-singing partner of her
two-person, traveling band.Each
tale brings loads of laughs and a genuine admiration for this woman before us
who clearly helped write the passages of East Bay lesbian and feminist history
just by being hard-working, persistent, daring, and -- of course -- talented in
such diverse areas as dish-washing, drumming, and stand-up comedy.”